Essie Mae Fights for the Rights of the African Americans

In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the

The first way she depart from the black community is when she decided to leave her friends and family and run off with Tea Cake away from those she loved and cared truly about. By doing this she demonstrates that she is pulling further away from the idea of the traditional harlem renaissance. A way that she reflects with the harlem renaissance is when her and Jody ran off and decided to build and increase the acknowledgement of an all black town. By this being shown is supports the idea of them reflecting the harlem renaissance and how the unity of the black community is still alive and affecting African Americans in a positive manner and tone.

Starting her second education, she was forced to drop out to care for her ailing grandmother. With Jim Crow’s Law, heavily in affect, her childhood was greatly influenced by the segregation between white people and black people in almost every part of their lives.

Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, depicts the various stages of her life from childhood, to high school, then to college, and ends with her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. In the novel, Anne tells the reader her story through events, conversations, and emotional struggles. The reader can interpret various elements of cultural knowledge that Anne Moody learned from her family and community as a child. Her understanding of the culture and race relations of the time period was shaped by many forces. Anne Moody’s family, community, education, interactions with various races, and her experiences outside of her hometown, shaped her into a devout activist for equal rights. As a child, the most important

of the differences in how Blacks are treated with in their race how light skinned were treated

When you live in the suburbs of Atlanta, it was easy to forget about whites. Whites were like those pigeons: real and existing, but rarely seen or thought about…everyone had seen white girls and their mother coo-coing over dresses; everyone had gone to downtown library and seen white businessmen swish by importantly, wrists flexed in front of them to check the time as though they would change from Clark Kent into Superman…those images were a fleeing as cards shuffled in a deck, where as the ten white girls behind us were real and memorable (179).

African Americans throughout the road to gain racial equality exercised many methods in order to attain such liberties. We start our exploration by viewing the most paramount methods to acquire racial equality; these methods included lobbying public officials through the court system and through peaceful public protests. We'll lastly address the violent methods used to gain racial equality but see how they were mostly unavailing.

The major event that caused Essie-Mae Moody to hate was the murder of Samuel O’Quinn. This murder was the straw that broke the camel’s back in relation to Essie’s shift to saying she hated whites. His death reminded her of all the other killings she had buried away inside of her that were waiting to explode. She was even more angry that she wanted to take direct action against what was

Coming of age in Mississippi is an autobiography written by an activist Anne Moody, also known as Essie Mae, about growing up in the poor southern part of Mississippi as an African American in the middle 20th century. It consist of four part; childhood, high school, college and The Movement. The absurdity of racial distinctions, the evil of disunity among blacks in the face of white oppression and the destructive power of prejudice are the three theme of this autobiography.

Coming of Age in Mississippi is an eye-opening testimony to the racism that exemplified what it was like to be an African American living in the south before and after the civil rights movements in the 50's and 60's. African Americans had been given voting and citizen rights, but did not and to a certain degree, still can not enjoy these rights. The southern economy that Anne Moody was born into in the 40's was one that was governed and ruled by a bunch of whites, many of which who very prejudice. This caused for a very hard up bringing for a young African American girl. Coming of Age in Mississippi broadened horizon of what it was like for African Americans to live during the 40's, 50', and 60's.

The book “Coming of Age in Mississippi” By Anne Moody is an autobiography and talks about the lifestyle of growing up as a Negro in the rural south during horrid times for blacks. Moody was born on September 15, 1940 and died just last year on February 5, 2015. Moody starts her story from the beginning of child hood living with her mother and siblings. She was a brilliant student and also had the motivation for doing her best, but the barriers that blocked her simply seemed impossible to pass, she was a black female. It is noted that in Centreville, where she lived, 8th grade was the highest education for Negro children (28). Whites on the other hand had much more access to literally everything. It wasn’t until about the age of 7 when Moody played with other white children for the first time, this was how segregated the lives were. When including race Moody’s mother always seemed to hide things from Moody and that’s what sprung her curiosity. Moody was often scolded for asking questions that arose like, why the theaters had white and black sections.

She explores the black experience in education, rape of women, and African American actors in film. The theme of discrimination does lie within these subjects but the overall theme of the story is the black experience in Southern California. Coleman has different tones when she touches on these subjects. For example, when she describes her surroundings and the places she has been, there is no certain emotion she conveys. Yes, she does paint a picture when she describes her surroundings like “i remember chili Fritos interminable concrete blocks traversed on my way to and from Fremont and Washington…” (pg. 688). Even with this type of description, the tone is unclear. Then later in the story, tone is detected when she says “ain’t this America? ain’t this democracy? ain’t this a city of angels? the entertainment capitol of the world?” (pg. 689). Before this quote, Coleman was talking about how when a black boy gets beaten they are denied equal opportunity and white people don't want them living in their neighborhood. Coleman questions America and how great it’s supposed to be. In other words, she proposed the question: if America is supposed to be such a great place, why are African Americans being discriminated

September,8,1954 a girl named Ruby was born, She was considered “Different” all because of her inheritance and the color of her skin. She was born in Tylertown, Mississippi and after a few years when it was time to start school she moved to New Orleans. It all sounds good which it turned out to be but, for a while it would have been a long path of pain but luckily for Ruby Bridges she didn't understand “Color”, there for what would have been the road of hot coals was a long red carpet.

Her entire time spent in Canton is met with little support, if not disgust, by whites as well as blacks. While the county is primarily black citizens, they still remain submissive to the white citizens in the area. This truly confuses and annoys Moody. She is looked upon with contempt by nearly all of the elder blacks, and can only seem to reach a small number of teenagers. This is when she privately realizes that if a change is to come, it has to come with the younger generations, not with the older. She again refers to the elder blacks as brainwashed and afraid to take what is theirs. The blacks in the county held nearly half the land, yet most were barely doing well enough to feed their families. She seems to initially think that the inferior thinking is only prominent in Centerville and Woodville, but when she realizes that this same mentality is present in Canton as well as all other parts of Mississippi, as well as New Orleans, this is only another nail in the coffin of her dream.

On the first day that Melba Patillo Beals went to school, she thought it was a nightmare. There was a huge mob outside Central High School, along with the Arkansas National Guard soldiers keeping them out. The image of Elizabeth Eckford really shows how it was. White people were surrounding them, cursing at them, of course saying the word “nigger”, and occasionally striking them (1994). It was so bad that Melba had to take the keys to their car from her mother and run away to escape. Imagine the sight of Melbas mother screaming at her “Melba, take the keys. Get to the car.